The shooting in a Brampton on Friday that left one police officer injured and a man dead has raised questions about the level of security in Ontario courthouses.

While there are no provincial regulations for security in the courthouses of Ontario, they do have local peace officers stationed at main entrances to search or scan visitors.

“The security needs of courthouses differ from location to location, and therefore the security measures in place at each courthouse also differ,” said Brendan Crawley, spokesman for the Ministry of the Attorney General.

“The Ontario government takes court security and the safety of all those in our courthouses very seriously.”

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Last year, two prisoners in Whitecourt, Alta., fired shots at an officer in a holding room behind the court in which they were scheduled to appear. The officer was shot in the hand, which immobilized him long enough for the prisoners to escape. The prisoners made their way to a sheriff’s van and fled. They were able to avoid police for an hour before being recaptured.

Violence in the late 1970s to early 2000s prompted courthouses to begin adding security features.

The incidents included the murder of divorce lawyer Frederick Gans, shot by the ex-husband of a client in the halls of the Supreme Court of Ontario in 1978; Oscar Fonseca, gunned down in an Osgoode Hall courtroom in 1982; and Robert Conway, a lawyer who was stabbed twice in the chest at Osgoode Hall in 1985.

The security features that were added in the 1990s included glass enclosures for court reception and registration desks, however additional security personnel were not required if the police determined it unnecessary.

Proposals in Bill 34, now being considered in Ontario, would give police officers additional authority to search visitors to courthouse property. The bill would allow police to search any vehicle, person, lawyer, prisoner, accused or members of the general public thought to be suspicious.